9
Train to Callao
2 days later
La Paz, Bolivia
The rats were attacking him again. Indy winced at the ticklish feeling of one of the creatures' tongues probing into his ear. He then cried out as he felt a pair of incisors close tightly on his earlobe.
"Ouch!!"
He opened his eyes and looked to his left, into the dark brown eyes of Guadalupe Esmeralda Maria de los Santos lying next to him on the pillow. She was smiling mischievously even while she still held Jones' ear lobe tightly between her teeth.
"What are you doing Lupe?" He asked matter of factly.
She let go his ear, "waking you up, mi Amor."
Jones picked up his pocket watch on the nightstand and looked at the hands in the dim light of the room, most of which was supplied by the rather garish neon sign of the restaurant next door to the small hotel in which they stayed.
He looked back over at her after he checked the time, "But it's only a little after three in the morning, the train doesn't leave 'till six. I can sleep at least two more hours."
She pouted a little, thrusting her generous lower lip out sensuously, "We need time to say goodbye mi Amor."
"Two hours to say goodbye?" Jones exclaimed incredulously.
Lupe just winked seductively, languidly closing and opening one of her long- lashed, toffee colored eyelids.
The seductive signal wasn't lost on Jones, and a smile spread slowly across his face.
Lupe put her hand down under the blanket, reaching for him. When she found him she smiled.
"And I think you're more than up to the task Indiana Jones."
They said goodbye for not quite the full two hours, and Jones did manage to get a little bit of sleep. But five o'clock came awfully early. He leaned over and kissed Lupe on the cheek before getting out of bed. As he started to dress, she lazily opened her eyes, then sat up and spoke to him.
"Wait mi Amor, I will walk with you to the estacion. Oh! Yo lo perdere' Indiana Jones!" She exclaimed hoarsely, the sleep still thick in her voice.
Jones liked the way Lupe mixed Spanish in with her English. Like adding spice to a recipe the fiery Latin language seemed to Jones to give the duller Anglo-Saxon tongue the flavor it lacked, and he liked the way she spoke to him.
He turned to her. He liked the way she looked right now too; sitting there on the edge of the bed with the sheet pulled up tight to her bosom, one naked thigh innocently exposed as she placed her foot on the floor and prepared to get up. The contrast of the starched, white fabric served to accentuate the beauty of her dark skin Jones thought, as well as her long, wavy black hair, still wild with sleep.
"I'll miss you too Lupe, I always do. But don't you have to go to work today?"
Lupe was a nurse at La Paz's main hospital.
"Si." She said with resignation in her voice. "But it is just as well. I need something to take my mind off of ....You!" she playfully pointed an accusing finger at him. "If I had to stay home today mi Amor I think I would just spend the whole day crying."
Then her face brightened, "But..., yo no voy a trabajar hasta que ocho. So I can walk with you to the estacion eh?"
Jones smiled at her, "Eh." He said back.
Thirty minutes later they walked the cobblestone streets of La Paz, casting long shadows in the early morning sun as they made their way to the train station. Jones wore his fatigues, leather jacket, and fedora. He traveled light, with only a pack, which he held with one hand, slung over his back, and of course his leather satchel, heavy with the golden mask of Payahuatac inside it, hanging by his side.
Lupe wore a drab colored, sensible knee length dress that effectively hid the beautiful curves that Jones knew lay underneath. Her wavy hair was loosely tied in the back, and her shoes were just as sensible as her dress.
As they walked she spoke to him.
"So mi Amor, when are you going to come to stay for good?"
Jones looked away, as if to dodge not only this, but also the rest of the questions he knew would follow. "When are you going to come and marry me?"
Indy swallowed, and continued walking in silence.
"We can go and live on my grandmama's farm in the hills. You can look for your treasures. You know there is gold everywhere in those hills."
As if to emphasize the point Lupe turned to face him with a wide smile, allowing the early morning altiplano sun to reflect off the golden crown she wore on her left front tooth.
"Si, usted puede buscar sus tesoros, y, I can take care of our babies."
"Babies?" Jones eyes widened and he threw a nervous look at her, shaking his head, "Oh, I don't think I'm quite ready for babies just yet."
She smiled again, the sun glinting off her gold tooth, then held her hand to her belly, "Might be too....late ...mi Amor."
She winked, and then laughed out loud. Indy liked the sound of her laughter, if not her sense of humor. At least he hoped she was joking.
When the time finally came for the last goodbye, Lupe cried, and Jones kissed her tenderly. Then he turned and boarded the train.
"You come back to me Indiana Jones!"
After the train began to move Jones laid his head back, tipped the brim of his hat down over his eyes, and endeavored to reclaim those lost hours of sleep from the previous night. But for some reason the sleep would not come; unusual for him, particularly with the gentle rhythmic motion of the train, which would normally rock him to sleep in no time at all.
After several minutes of insomnia-thwarted attempts to grab the elusive ZZZZ's Jones gave up. Maybe it was the mask. The large, jewel encrusted, solid gold mask of Payahuatac barely fit into his satchel, and he was self conscious about anyone catching a glint of the gold which shone through the gap where the top flap of the satchel was pushed up by its large size.
The last thing he wanted was to attract any attention. He'd thought about putting the piece into his back pack, but preferred to keep it closer. It would be more difficult for a would-be thief to take it from him, and if need be, it would be easier to make a run for it.
But maybe there was another reason he couldn't sleep. Maybe it was what Lupe had said. Sometimes Jones wondered if he would , ever settle down with any woman. Sometimes he felt guilty about his relationship with Lupe and other women in his life. Were the rewards of the nomadic, adventurous life worth it? Was he getting too old for this? He wondered. And he wondered about children too. Lupe's joke, and Jones still wasn't entirely sure it was a joke, had struck a chord deep within him. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to settle down. He could do a lot worse than Lupe, he thought to himself. She was sweet, pretty, and he knew she loved him. Did he love her? He knew that he loved to be with her. But there were too many other women who he could say the same about.....
After a time Jones whisked the vexing thoughts from his mind. Too much soul searching wasn't good for a man. Hadn't someone famous said that once? If they hadn't they should have.
The archaeologist's thoughts went back to the heavy gold piece that rested on his hip.
The mask would fetch a small fortune. The jewels alone were worth enough to pay off his debts from last summer's disastrous dig in the Sudan. Or perhaps he could use the money for another purpose, such as to return to the Andes in search of the Disc of the Sun, a treasure which would make the mask of Payahuatac look like a mere trinket. But before he did that he would need to research the map more thoroughly.
He gazed out the window of the train. Like most trains in the Andes it was slow. Its ultimate destination would be the city of Lima Peru, or more precisely Callao, its port city annex. Jones knew the trip down from the Andes to the Peruvian coast would be a twenty hour ride at least, and that's only if the train didn't break down on the way.
The route of the train took it around the south shores of Lake Titicaca, the world's highest navigable lake, and past the mystical and mysterious ruins of Tahuanacu, before crossing the border into Peru.
Outside the window of the slow moving train the green valleys, mountains and hills of the Peruvian altiplano passed by. Llamas, alpacas, and vicunas grazed contentedly, not even looking up as the train wound languidly through their pastures.
Riders roamed freely through the train, moving from car to car through the doors in between. Quechua Indians dressed in colorful alpaca wool wandered through, selling roasted corn on the cob.
And so it was that Indy took no notice of the two men who now entered his rail car from the car behind, quietly closing the door and taking the seats across the aisle from the archaeologist.
One of the men was large, probably well over two hundred pounds. His nose was flattened out, as if he might have been a fighter at some time in his life. His eyes were dull yet cruel, staring out at the world from a small mind with little or no conscience. His dark bushy hair matched his mustache.
The second man was small, wiry, and swarthy. His hair was greasy and unclean. His nose was large and beak-like; his eyes were small and deep- set. They were beady, and far crueler looking than his companion's.
Both men had the unmistakable glazed look of those who regularly chew the coca leaf.
Manilito would know these two as 'the bad men'; the 'bad men' who had wanted to know if the gringo had come out of the mountain. And Manilito had told them that he had.
Now the larger man eyed Jones' pack and satchel with the eye of a practiced thief.
Train to Callao
2 days later
La Paz, Bolivia
The rats were attacking him again. Indy winced at the ticklish feeling of one of the creatures' tongues probing into his ear. He then cried out as he felt a pair of incisors close tightly on his earlobe.
"Ouch!!"
He opened his eyes and looked to his left, into the dark brown eyes of Guadalupe Esmeralda Maria de los Santos lying next to him on the pillow. She was smiling mischievously even while she still held Jones' ear lobe tightly between her teeth.
"What are you doing Lupe?" He asked matter of factly.
She let go his ear, "waking you up, mi Amor."
Jones picked up his pocket watch on the nightstand and looked at the hands in the dim light of the room, most of which was supplied by the rather garish neon sign of the restaurant next door to the small hotel in which they stayed.
He looked back over at her after he checked the time, "But it's only a little after three in the morning, the train doesn't leave 'till six. I can sleep at least two more hours."
She pouted a little, thrusting her generous lower lip out sensuously, "We need time to say goodbye mi Amor."
"Two hours to say goodbye?" Jones exclaimed incredulously.
Lupe just winked seductively, languidly closing and opening one of her long- lashed, toffee colored eyelids.
The seductive signal wasn't lost on Jones, and a smile spread slowly across his face.
Lupe put her hand down under the blanket, reaching for him. When she found him she smiled.
"And I think you're more than up to the task Indiana Jones."
They said goodbye for not quite the full two hours, and Jones did manage to get a little bit of sleep. But five o'clock came awfully early. He leaned over and kissed Lupe on the cheek before getting out of bed. As he started to dress, she lazily opened her eyes, then sat up and spoke to him.
"Wait mi Amor, I will walk with you to the estacion. Oh! Yo lo perdere' Indiana Jones!" She exclaimed hoarsely, the sleep still thick in her voice.
Jones liked the way Lupe mixed Spanish in with her English. Like adding spice to a recipe the fiery Latin language seemed to Jones to give the duller Anglo-Saxon tongue the flavor it lacked, and he liked the way she spoke to him.
He turned to her. He liked the way she looked right now too; sitting there on the edge of the bed with the sheet pulled up tight to her bosom, one naked thigh innocently exposed as she placed her foot on the floor and prepared to get up. The contrast of the starched, white fabric served to accentuate the beauty of her dark skin Jones thought, as well as her long, wavy black hair, still wild with sleep.
"I'll miss you too Lupe, I always do. But don't you have to go to work today?"
Lupe was a nurse at La Paz's main hospital.
"Si." She said with resignation in her voice. "But it is just as well. I need something to take my mind off of ....You!" she playfully pointed an accusing finger at him. "If I had to stay home today mi Amor I think I would just spend the whole day crying."
Then her face brightened, "But..., yo no voy a trabajar hasta que ocho. So I can walk with you to the estacion eh?"
Jones smiled at her, "Eh." He said back.
Thirty minutes later they walked the cobblestone streets of La Paz, casting long shadows in the early morning sun as they made their way to the train station. Jones wore his fatigues, leather jacket, and fedora. He traveled light, with only a pack, which he held with one hand, slung over his back, and of course his leather satchel, heavy with the golden mask of Payahuatac inside it, hanging by his side.
Lupe wore a drab colored, sensible knee length dress that effectively hid the beautiful curves that Jones knew lay underneath. Her wavy hair was loosely tied in the back, and her shoes were just as sensible as her dress.
As they walked she spoke to him.
"So mi Amor, when are you going to come to stay for good?"
Jones looked away, as if to dodge not only this, but also the rest of the questions he knew would follow. "When are you going to come and marry me?"
Indy swallowed, and continued walking in silence.
"We can go and live on my grandmama's farm in the hills. You can look for your treasures. You know there is gold everywhere in those hills."
As if to emphasize the point Lupe turned to face him with a wide smile, allowing the early morning altiplano sun to reflect off the golden crown she wore on her left front tooth.
"Si, usted puede buscar sus tesoros, y, I can take care of our babies."
"Babies?" Jones eyes widened and he threw a nervous look at her, shaking his head, "Oh, I don't think I'm quite ready for babies just yet."
She smiled again, the sun glinting off her gold tooth, then held her hand to her belly, "Might be too....late ...mi Amor."
She winked, and then laughed out loud. Indy liked the sound of her laughter, if not her sense of humor. At least he hoped she was joking.
When the time finally came for the last goodbye, Lupe cried, and Jones kissed her tenderly. Then he turned and boarded the train.
"You come back to me Indiana Jones!"
After the train began to move Jones laid his head back, tipped the brim of his hat down over his eyes, and endeavored to reclaim those lost hours of sleep from the previous night. But for some reason the sleep would not come; unusual for him, particularly with the gentle rhythmic motion of the train, which would normally rock him to sleep in no time at all.
After several minutes of insomnia-thwarted attempts to grab the elusive ZZZZ's Jones gave up. Maybe it was the mask. The large, jewel encrusted, solid gold mask of Payahuatac barely fit into his satchel, and he was self conscious about anyone catching a glint of the gold which shone through the gap where the top flap of the satchel was pushed up by its large size.
The last thing he wanted was to attract any attention. He'd thought about putting the piece into his back pack, but preferred to keep it closer. It would be more difficult for a would-be thief to take it from him, and if need be, it would be easier to make a run for it.
But maybe there was another reason he couldn't sleep. Maybe it was what Lupe had said. Sometimes Jones wondered if he would , ever settle down with any woman. Sometimes he felt guilty about his relationship with Lupe and other women in his life. Were the rewards of the nomadic, adventurous life worth it? Was he getting too old for this? He wondered. And he wondered about children too. Lupe's joke, and Jones still wasn't entirely sure it was a joke, had struck a chord deep within him. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to settle down. He could do a lot worse than Lupe, he thought to himself. She was sweet, pretty, and he knew she loved him. Did he love her? He knew that he loved to be with her. But there were too many other women who he could say the same about.....
After a time Jones whisked the vexing thoughts from his mind. Too much soul searching wasn't good for a man. Hadn't someone famous said that once? If they hadn't they should have.
The archaeologist's thoughts went back to the heavy gold piece that rested on his hip.
The mask would fetch a small fortune. The jewels alone were worth enough to pay off his debts from last summer's disastrous dig in the Sudan. Or perhaps he could use the money for another purpose, such as to return to the Andes in search of the Disc of the Sun, a treasure which would make the mask of Payahuatac look like a mere trinket. But before he did that he would need to research the map more thoroughly.
He gazed out the window of the train. Like most trains in the Andes it was slow. Its ultimate destination would be the city of Lima Peru, or more precisely Callao, its port city annex. Jones knew the trip down from the Andes to the Peruvian coast would be a twenty hour ride at least, and that's only if the train didn't break down on the way.
The route of the train took it around the south shores of Lake Titicaca, the world's highest navigable lake, and past the mystical and mysterious ruins of Tahuanacu, before crossing the border into Peru.
Outside the window of the slow moving train the green valleys, mountains and hills of the Peruvian altiplano passed by. Llamas, alpacas, and vicunas grazed contentedly, not even looking up as the train wound languidly through their pastures.
Riders roamed freely through the train, moving from car to car through the doors in between. Quechua Indians dressed in colorful alpaca wool wandered through, selling roasted corn on the cob.
And so it was that Indy took no notice of the two men who now entered his rail car from the car behind, quietly closing the door and taking the seats across the aisle from the archaeologist.
One of the men was large, probably well over two hundred pounds. His nose was flattened out, as if he might have been a fighter at some time in his life. His eyes were dull yet cruel, staring out at the world from a small mind with little or no conscience. His dark bushy hair matched his mustache.
The second man was small, wiry, and swarthy. His hair was greasy and unclean. His nose was large and beak-like; his eyes were small and deep- set. They were beady, and far crueler looking than his companion's.
Both men had the unmistakable glazed look of those who regularly chew the coca leaf.
Manilito would know these two as 'the bad men'; the 'bad men' who had wanted to know if the gringo had come out of the mountain. And Manilito had told them that he had.
Now the larger man eyed Jones' pack and satchel with the eye of a practiced thief.
